Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group will abandon its march toward Moscow and return to the fight in Ukraine, the group’s chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said Saturday as a major crisis that seemed to threaten President Vladimir Putin’s grip on power has been averted.
Mr. Prigozhin said he called off the rebellion to avoid “shedding Russian blood.” The announcement comes as Moscow prepared for war, with barricades set up around the city and Russian officials vowing to put down the assault.
It’s not immediately clear how the apparent deal between Mr. Prigozhin and the Kremlin came together, but Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Mr. Putin, appears to have played a key role.
Mr. Prigozhin “accepted the proposal of President Alexander Lukashenko to stop the movement of armed men of Wagner in Russia and take further steps to de-escalate tension,” reads a statement from Mr. Lukashenko’s office, according to RT.com and other outlets.
The end of the Wagner march to Moscow, described by Mr. Putin earlier in the day as “treason,” forestalls a battle in and around Russia’s capital that could have plunged the nation into a near-civil war. Earlier in the day, it appeared such a scenario was about to unfold.
Russian military helicopters reportedly opened fire earlier Saturday on the army of mercenary rebels. It was a stunning turn of events in Russia as Mr. Prigozhin, a key figure in the highest level of military circles in Moscow, launched an armed rebellion aimed at toppling the leadership of Russia’s embattled Defense Ministry.
The move, which Mr. Putin dubbed a “stab in the back,” came after months of Mr. Prigozhin’s public criticism of the Kremlin and its inability — or perhaps refusal — to provide Wagner fighters in Ukraine with the food, ammunition and equipment they need. Wagner mercenaries have often appeared to be the country’s most effective fighters in Ukraine, leading to major dissension between the group and the Russian military proper.
Before calling off the advance, Mr. Prigozhin’s private army appeared to take control of the military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, a city about 660 miles south of Moscow and a crucial logistics and communications hub for Russia’s military operation in Ukraine. The Wagner army was planning to use the site as a base of operations as it began its push toward Moscow.
By late Saturday morning, the group was reportedly more than halfway to the Russian capital and was meeting surprisingly little resistance along the way. The prospect of a high-profile clash in Moscow between government troops and Wagner fighters would have seemed unthinkable just several days ago.
Amid the unfolding conflict, Mr. Putin appeared on state television Saturday and pledged to put down the rebellion.
“We will defend both our people and our statehood from any threats, including internal treachery. What we have been confronted with can be precisely called treachery. The unbounded ambitions and personal interests have led to a treason and a betrayal of the country and its people,” Mr. Putin said, according to Moscow’s state-run Tass News Agency.
The Russian leader, now 70 years old and facing criticism from within his own country amid its military failures in Ukraine, vowed that the Russian Federation will not see a full-blown civil war. He said Mr. Prigozhin’s actions are a betrayal of the Russian men who have died so far in the Ukraine war. The Kremlin also called for the Wagner leader’s immediate arrest.
“The heroes who liberated Soledar and Artyomovsk, towns and settlements in Donbas, who fought and lost their lives for Novorossiya, for the unity of the Russian world — their name and glory have also been betrayed by those who are trying to stage a mutiny and pushing the country towards anarchy and fratricide, defeat and finally surrender,” he said, according to Tass.
White House National Security Council spokesperson Adam Hodge said the administration is “monitoring the situation and will be consulting with allies and partners on these developments.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with his counterparts across Europe on Saturday, as well as the foreign ministers of Japan and Canada.
“Secretary Blinken reiterated that support by the United States for Ukraine will not change. The United States will stay in close coordination with allies and partners as the situation continues to develop,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.
While Mr. Putin has called it “treason,” Mr. Prigozhin framed the unfolding conflict much differently. He said his private army, estimated to have well over 50,000 fighters within its ranks, is trying to save the country, not destroy it.
“Regarding the betrayal of the motherland, the president was deeply mistaken. We are patriots of our homeland,” he said in an audio message on his Telegram channel. “We do not want the country to live on in corruption, deceit and bureaucracy.”
“This is not a military coup, but a march of justice,” Mr. Prigozhin said.
Throughout the crisis, the situation on the ground in Russia was murky, but Reuters reported Saturday that the Wagner forces had advanced at least halfway to Moscow before the rebellion was called off. Russian military helicopters fired on that Wagner convoy, according to Reuters, which has journalists on the ground in the area.
Mr. Prigozhin said his forces shot down a Russian military helicopter, but that claim couldn’t immediately be verified by observers on the ground.
While the immediate crisis was averted, there are still outstanding questions for Mr. Putin. Chief among them is how much support Mr. Prigozhin and his fighters may have within the Russian military establishment itself. It’s unclear how the Wagner fighters were able to enter and control Rostov-on-Don so quickly, and their apparent success suggests that perhaps the Russian rank and file did not put up a great deal of resistance.
Indeed, foreign intelligence analysts say that dynamic — whether the Russian armed forces remain loyal to Mr. Putin or join a movement to overthrow parts of his government — is key. Such questions remain important as the Russian leader weighs the loyalty of his military leadership.
“With very limited evidence of fighting between Wagner and Russian security forces, some have likely remained passive, acquiescing to Wagner,” the British Ministry of Defense wrote in a Twitter post on Saturday, before the announcement of a pullback by Wagner troops. “Over the coming hours, the loyalty of Russia’s security forces, and especially the Russian National Guard, will be key to how the crisis plays out. This represents the most significant challenge to the Russian state in recent times.”
Other observers say Mr. Putin faced a consequential period, with at least some of his support in military circles wavering.
“If the army starts to turn, trouble for Putin,” retired U.S. Army Gen. Keith Kellogg said in a Twitter post.
Mr. Prigozhin’s ire is aimed mainly at Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Gen. Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian military’s general staff. The Wagner leader has argued both men have badly bungled Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and have failed to give Wagner fighters in Ukraine the support they need.
By contrast, the upper echelons of Russian military circles have increasingly viewed Mr. Prigozhin as a threat to the Kremlin and as a wild card who cannot be controlled. It seemed virtually certain over the past several months that the conflict would eventually come to a head.
For Mr. Prigozhin, it’s not clear whether he would have been able to pull other hard-line Russian factions into his rebellious camp. For example, Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman leader of the Chechnya region who also has taken direct aim at Russian military leadership, made clear Saturday he sides with Mr. Putin.
“We have the commander in chief, elected by the people, who knows the situation to the slightest detail better than any strategist and businessman,” Mr. Kadyrov said. “The mutiny needs to be suppressed.”
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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